Hard choice means life and death for two friends

Nancy Flake and, Carrie Thornton Courier staff

Published
7:14 pm CDT, Monday, March 26, 2012

Ed Coen, left, and Ken Henderson, right, show off two of the fish they caught during a trip about two weeks ago. On Thursday, the best friends, both from Conroe, took another fishing trip to Matagorda Bay when their boat sank. Henderson was able to swim miles for help, but Coen was unable to survive. less

Ed Coen, left, and Ken Henderson, right, show off two of the fish they caught during a trip about two weeks ago. On Thursday, the best friends, both from Conroe, took another fishing trip to Matagorda Bay when ... more

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Ed Coen, left, and Ken Henderson, right, show off two of the fish they caught during a trip about two weeks ago. On Thursday, the best friends, both from Conroe, took another fishing trip to Matagorda Bay when their boat sank. Henderson was able to swim miles for help, but Coen was unable to survive. less

Ed Coen, left, and Ken Henderson, right, show off two of the fish they caught during a trip about two weeks ago. On Thursday, the best friends, both from Conroe, took another fishing trip to Matagorda Bay when ... more

Hard choice means life and death for two friends

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Lost in the waters of Matagorda Bay and watching his best friend get weaker from hypothermia and dehydration, Ken Henderson made a decision that literally meant life and death for the two Conroe men.

When the boat Henderson and Ed Coen were in while on a fishing trip sank Thursday, the men tied their life jackets together. Hours later, Henderson, a retired Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputy, untied the life jacket strap connecting him to his best friend and began to swim for help.

“He couldn’t kick his legs to swim anymore, and I knew I had a choice,” Henderson told The Courier Monday. “I told him, ‘I need your help,’ or we would both be stranded out here and die.”

Just the night before, Ashley Coen spoke for the last time with her father. He made sure, she said, to remind Ashley to take care of her 13-year-old stepsister while he was gone.

After many hours and miles of swimming, Henderson, 49, made it to an oil rig where he was able to call his wife and the Coast Guard. A short time later, Ed Coen, 48, was found floating in the water by a fisherman. He was dead.

Recuperating in a Corpus Christi hospital Monday, Henderson, who has had extensive boat and water safety training, recalled the events leading to the difficult choice he had to make to leave his friend and swim for help.

He and Coen were enjoying soft drinks around noon Thursday on Henderson’s 30-foot Scarab boat when Coen suddenly realized the boat was taking on water.

“I was like, ‘Holy Moly,’” Henderson said, “and tried to get the motor started to clear the water out.”

But his attempts were fruitless, as both engines failed, stranding the two men on a quickly sinking boat. Henderson made two Mayday calls to the Marine Radio but received no response, he said. He then tried to call 911 but had no cell phone service. At the same time, Coen collected life jackets and anything the men could use to float.

“He did a very good job,” Henderson said.

When the boat made a violent flip into the air, the men were left in the water with only life jackets, a boat oar, a dock pole and what was left of Coen’s soft drink, which Coen zipped into a bag, Henderson said.

Over the next 35 hours, Henderson and Coen worked to stay alive and signal for help. Henderson ripped an extra life jacket to leave a trail of its foam floating in the water to act as a trail. He also tightened a strap connecting him and his friend so they wouldn’t lose each other.

“We would take turns sleeping on each other’s chest,” he said, “just to get each other out of the cold water. I would float on my back and bring him up, and he would do the same.”

It wasn’t long before conditions began to get the best of Coen, Henderson said, who started seeing signs of hypothermia and shock.

“He was a small guy, just 5 feet 5 inches and no more than 145 to 150 pounds, so he didn’t have much insulation on him,” he said. “The hypothermia set in after a few hours, and he was violently shivering.”

When Coen could no longer swim by Friday afternoon, Henderson knew what had to be done, he said. After leaving behind what was left of the soft drink, the boat paddle and pole, he untied the strap bonding him to his friend and began to swim toward nearby oil rigs.

Around 2 a.m. Saturday Henderson boarded a natural gas rig and took refuge in its galley, rehydrating and washing salt from his body. He called his wife and the Coast Guard, who were notified around 9 a.m. Saturday Coen’s body had been found by a local fisherman.

“We had been best friends for 25 years,” Henderson said. “All of his kids call me Uncle Ken. We were as close as two guys could be,” Henderson said. “I want everyone to know Ed was as big of a part in this as I was. It was simply because of him being lean that he succumbed to the hypothermia before I did.

“He was a very big-hearted person, and would do anything in the world for me,” he said. “We were true brothers. I really miss him.”

Coen and Henderson “loved to fish,” Ashley Coen said, and had been on another fishing trip a couple of weeks ago.

Her father, a pipe fitter in Canada, was between jobs, “and Uncle Ken just retired,” she said, “so they’re gung-ho to go fishing.

“It’s helpful he was doing what he loved.”

Ed Coen also loved his “gaggle of girls,” Ashley Coen said, including Ashley, her sisters Haley Hammers and Sarah and Ashley’s two young daughters.

“He was an amazing father, grandfather, family man and friend,” she said.

A Marine, Ed Coen had lost a brother just after Valentine’s Day but served as the family’s “rock,” Ashley said. “We all leaned on him.”

She had gotten to see her father as he and Henderson were preparing to drive off for Matagorda Beach, bringing him his cell phone charger.

“Once again, I told him, ‘I love you,’” she said. “I’m glad those were the last words we said.”

Her “Uncle Ken” told her that, as he and Ed Coen were fighting for their lives in the water, her dad kept talking about his daughters and granddaughters.

“We know we were loved very much,” she said. “I know he was cold and weak.